Payroll Project Technical Lead

SD Guthrie Berhad; Petaling Jaya; Hybrid; MYR 134,000 - 268,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible Benefits Coverage

Hybrid Workplace

Learning on Demand

Employee Wellness Programme

Free Parking

Free Shuttle Service from nearest LRT

Job summary

SD Guthrie Berhad is seeking a Senior SAP Payroll Lead to drive the Global Payroll Transformation. You will provide technical leadership across countries, ensuring solution design, data migration, testing, and go-live readiness.

The role requires strong knowledge of SAP Payroll, ECC/S/4HANA transitions, and collaboration with HR, IT, Finance, and external partners. Experience with multi-country payrolls and Workday interfaces is preferred.

Qualifications

• 5–8 years of hands-on SAP Payroll implementation and support.
• Strong functional and technical knowledge of SAP Payroll, including payroll configuration and PCRs.
• Experience with SAP ECC Payroll and migration or transition to SAP S/4HANA or SAP HCM for SAP S/4HANA.

Responsibilities

• Provide SAP Payroll technical leadership for the Global Payroll Transformation Project across multiple countries and units.
• Ensure technical quality and integrity of SAP Payroll design, configuration, integration, data migration, testing, cutover and post-go-live stabilisation.
• Review and challenge partner-proposed solutions to align with requirements, SAP standards, security, and architecture.
• Collaborate with HR, IT, Finance, Workday teams and vendors to resolve issues and ensure end-to-end readiness.
• Identify and escalate technical risks, defects, dependencies and design gaps affecting payroll accuracy and timelines.
• Coordinate SIT, UAT, parallel runs, cutover rehearsals and production deployment.

Skills

SAP Payroll

ECC Payroll

S/4HANA transition

PCRs & wage types

Data migration

UAT/SIT testing

Workday integrations

ABAP debugging

Education

SAP Payroll certification

Tools

SAP ECC

SAP S/4HANA

ABAP

Workday PECI/PICOF

Job description

SD Guthrie Berhad (SD Guthrie) is one of the world's leading producers of Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO), representing approximately 12% of the global market share (as of 31 December 2022). With over 84,000 employees across 12 countries, we pride ourselves on innovation, sustainability, and excellence. Our operations span the entire palm oil value chain, and we are expanding into new business verticals such as green industrial parks and renewable energy. We offer enriching career opportunities supported by cutting-edge technology and a commitment to sustainability. We are the world's first palm oil company to have our net-zero GHG emissions reduction targets approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

Join us today, as we continue to Unlock Nature's Superpowers.

Your Mission

• Responsible for providing SAP Payroll technical leadership for the Global Payroll Transformation Project, supporting implementation across multiple countries and business units.
• Accountable for the technical quality and integrity of SAP Payroll solution design, configuration, integration, data migration, testing, cutover and post-go-live stabilisation activities.
• Reviews and challenges technical solutions, configuration decisions and migration approaches proposed by implementation partners to ensure alignment with business requirements, SAP standards, security requirements and the approved project architecture.
• Works closely with country HR and payroll teams, Group IT, Finance, Workday teams, implementation partners and payroll service providers to resolve technical issues and ensure end-to-end solution readiness.
• Accountable for identifying, assessing and escalating technical risks, defects, dependencies and design gaps that may affect payroll accuracy, regulatory compliance, project timelines or business operations.
• Coordinates and validates the technical execution and results of System Integration Testing, User Acceptance Testing, payroll parallel runs, cutover rehearsals and production deployment.
• Provides technical readiness assessments and recommendations to support testing sign-off, cutover approval and Go/No-Go decisions. Final business and project approvals remain with the designated business owners and project governance bodies.
• Ensures that technical specifications, configuration records, interface documentation, testing evidence, issue logs, cutover procedures and operational handover documents are complete, accurate and properly maintained.
• The role does not hold direct budget authority or final business approval authority. However, the role is accountable for providing sound technical recommendations, escalating material risks promptly and ensuring the timely completion of assigned technical deliverables.
• The role has a direct impact on payroll accuracy, system reliability, data integrity, regulatory compliance and successful payroll operations across the countries and business units within the project scope.

Ideal Candidate

• At least five to eight years of hands-on SAP Payroll implementation and support experience.
• Strong functional and technical knowledge of SAP Payroll, including payroll configuration, payroll schemas, Personnel Calculation Rules (PCRs), wage types, payroll functions and payroll control records.
• Strong understanding of payroll processing, retroactive calculations, off-cycle payroll, statutory deductions, payroll reconciliation and posting to Finance.
• Experience with SAP ECC Payroll and migration or transition to SAP S/4HANA or SAP HCM for SAP S/4HANA.
• Demonstrated involvement in at least two full‑cycle SAP Payroll implementations, migrations or major transformation programmes.
• Ability to review and challenge solution designs, configuration decisions, technical specifications and migration approaches proposed by implementation partners.
• Experience with SAP Payroll interfaces, data migration, payroll results, reconciliation reports and integration with third‑party systems.
• Experience coordinating unit testing, System Integration Testing (SIT), User Acceptance Testing (UAT), parallel runs, cutover and post‑go‑live stabilisation.
• Ability to analyse payroll calculation errors, integration failures, data discrepancies and configuration‑related issues.
• Working knowledge of Workday payroll integrations, such as PECI, PICOF or equivalent payroll interfaces, would be an advantage.
• Knowledge of ABAP debugging, payroll clusters, interface monitoring or technical troubleshooting would be an added advantage.
• Experience working with multi‑country payroll implementations and country‑specific statutory requirements is preferred.
• Strong stakeholder‑management and vendor‑management skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with technical teams, payroll users and senior stakeholders.
• Relevant SAP HCM or SAP Payroll certification would be an advantage.

Why Join Us?

• Flexible Benefits Coverage
• Hybrid Workplace
• Learning on Demand
• Employee Wellness Programme
• Employee Engagement Activities
• Fully Subsidised Sports Clubs
• Education Assistance (terms & conditions apply)
• Free Parking
• Free Shuttle Service from nearest LRT
• and many more...

Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

Discover more opportunities with us here!